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Alumni Profile

Emmett Carson

CEO & President, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

PhD, Class of 1985

MPA '83 Emmett D. Carson, Ph. D., is an international thought leader in the field of philanthropy. As founding CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation in 2006, he led the unprecedented merger of two of the largest community foundations in the world. Today, with over $3 billion under management, Emmett oversees the community foundation’s work with donors and corporations whose giving is responsible for it being both the largest grantmaker to Bay Area nonprofit organizations and the largest international grantmaker among community foundations in the U.S. Before this, Emmett had a distinguished 12 year career as CEO of The Minneapolis Foundation and, prior to that, oversaw the Ford Foundation’s U.S. and global grantmaking program on philanthropy and nonprofit sector. Emmett has published more than 100 works on philanthropy and is an authority on issues of social justice, public accountability and African American giving. He is consistently recognized as one of the most influential nonprofit leaders in the U.S. and has honorary degrees from Indiana University, Morehouse College and The National Hispanic University. Emmett received both his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in public and international affairs from Princeton University and his bachelor’s degree in economics, Phi Beta Kappa, from Morehouse College.